Welcome!

I'm Clifford Stumme, and I use literary analysis and research to explain the deeper meanings of pop songs. Feel free to leave a comment or to email me at clifford@popsongprofessor.com with questions or ideas!

Going Deeper behind the Lyrics

Feb 23

Feb 23 What does "Jumpsuit" by Twenty One Pilots mean? (music video and lyrics)

“Jumpsuit” Lyrics Meaning

(The following blog post is a transcript created by Xalma of the below video.)

Jumpsuit’s music video is insane; there is so much meaningful stuff. It looks like a bishop or Blurryface is in it, there is a cameo by Josh and Jenna in there, the allusions to movies. There is a story to tell here, and I am excited to go over this in depth with you, guys.

The interesting thing here is that the lyrics themselves aren’t going to take a ton of explanation; it’s the music video that tells the story, and I did not think that they’d make songs that are connected to Dema storyline; but they did, they have made 3 music videos that tells a 3-part story: Jumpsuit, Nico and The Niners, and Levitate, which I’ll be explaining soon, so stay tuned.

“Jumpsuit, Jumpsuit, cover me”

If you’re confused about what Dema is, or any other stuff about Twenty One Pilots, you can check the link below:

First thing we see is the burnt out car from the music video of “Heavydirtysoul”; and Tyler is standing on top of it, wearing the same clothes that he was wearing back then, which makes us assume that this follows the story of “Heavydirtysoul” directly, after the car was burnt down. Next we see Tyler lying in a ravine or a creek unconscious with water that’s flowing through it. Then he starts to get up and walk; he also is wearing this jacket, with these yellow strips on either side. Then we see out in the distance this red-robed figure, on a pale white horse, coming in; and his face is kind of blurry. We see him coming towards Tyler, but up on the sides of the hills there is other people, also wearing yellow, who started to pop up, and we can recognize this scene as one of the pictures in the Dema website.

And every once in a while, we would see these flashes of another situation, and it looks like an old church building or something, there are lights, and nine robed figures. We get to see this for just like a split second; but it is there, and I think that this is a reference to the nine bishops, because they are cloaked in the same way that the red-robed figure is, and it seems that this might be Nico, or one of the bishops coming to get Tyler back to Dema.

Next we see him up close, and we see that his face is indeed blurry because he’s wearing this veil, so it’s probably “Blurryface”; then he puts three of his fingers on either side on Tyler’s neck and leaves that black goo that we saw in the Blurryface era; that was kind of a symbol of Tyler’s insecurities, and that black stuff was always on his hands and his throat, which is where he makes music, and it had a lot to do with insecurities, fear, and basically Blurryface who’s inside of him. So now Tyler’s been reclaimed by the bishop, and he’s being lead back to Dema or the towers of silence; note that silence is the opposite of music in this case, which is good for him to be making.

Then he sees something beautiful, he sees these yellow flowers on the ground, and all of the people or the banditos start to throw yellow flower petals down, which makes the horse that the bishop is riding on start to get a little bit crazy and agitated; and it kind of breaks Tyler out of this trance, so he starts to run away. We see this clear association, yellow is good, and red is bad; it’s probably why twenty one pilots’ new logo is yellow; the old logo had red in it, so what does that mean?! It’s also a clear reference to M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, The Village where the villagers use the colour yellow to try scare away the red beasts that haunted them and kept them in the place that they have lived in. Tyler Joseph is defiantly a M. Night Shyamalan fan; the connections are insane here.

Back to the music video, Tyler falls, which is a thing that he seems to be doing a lot while running through this ravine, which could be a reference to how a lot of the times when we try to live a good life, or fine joy, we may fall, make mistakes, but we have to get up and keep going. But this time, Blurryface, or the bishop, catches up to him, and the last thing that we see in this scene is the bishop, standing over Tyler’s unconscious body, and only one of the people up the edges of the ravine is left, and it’s obvious that this person is Josh Dun, who’s wearing this yellow bandana over his face, but it looks like him, with his arm tattoos too; so Josh is looking down at Tyler, which could be symbolic of the fact that Josh is a good friend, and that he always helps him fight through things, and in this case, we don’t know what’s going to happen, and it sounds like it’s a good opportunity to wait for the next music video.

At the very end, we go back to ‘Heavydirtysoul’, and beside the car, Tyler puts on this same jacket, and then starts walking, which could mean that this scene is from the past before he gets to the ravine.

Intro

Cover me

This has showed up in one of Clancy’s letters, and it seems to be some sort of a call to other people or banditos in yellow; it could be the skeleton clique, it could be friends, and family, it could be Josh, or Jenna; he’s saying “Back me up, and watch out for me, when the bishops come after me”, and he says:

Chorus

I can't believe how much I hatePressures of a new place roll my wayJumpsuit, jumpsuit, cover meJumpsuit, jumpsuit, cover me

He’s also looking towards this “Jumpsuit”, which could be a metaphor for the people who help him, or the tactics that he uses to fight depression, or anything at all that helps him to defeat the bishops. Now I will say that what he’s wearing in the music video is not technically a jumpsuit because it’s just a jacket, so I don’t know what kind of jumpsuit he’s talking about, but it’s interesting because a jumpsuit is a suit that covers your entire body, from ankle to wrists, all the way to your neck, so it kind of is a protective cover, almost like a security blanket. It’s like a way to hid from the rest of the world, and have some sort of an element of separation between you and them, and maybe to keep you safe from dangers. Then he says:

I crumble underneath the weightPressures of a new place roll my wayJumpsuit, jumpsuit, cover meJumpsuit, jumpsuit, cover me

So, sometimes pressure gets to him so much, and the part about being in a new place, and those pressures that roll his way, could just be talking about how coming into a new album, or a new place musically, or getting further and further into the music industry, or just maturing and growing into new stages of life.

It seems like a jumpsuit is a thing that he used before, and he comes back to it when he needs it; and those spirits could be thought, ideas, or even literal spirits. Tyler is a Christian, so he could be thinking of angels and demons in this case. In the bridge, an iconic Star Wars reference, sort of! But I think that he’s referring directly to Blurryface in this stanza, because he is singing:

Bridge

I'll be right thereBut you'll have to grab my throat and lift me in the airIf you need anyoneI'll stop my plansBut you'll have to tie me down and then break both my handsIf you need anyoneI'll be right thereBut you'll have to grab my throat and lift me in the air

For him, the throat and hands are a place of great vulnerabilities because his throat and his hands are what he uses to create art; and so he’s saying “If you want to stop me, you have to take away those from me.” His art is something that he uses for comfort, self-therapy, creating, and expressing the struggles that he deals with.

Outro for “Jumpsuit” by Twenty One Pilots

So, this was the explanation for both the song and the music video for Jumpsuit, the first song in the new album Trench, by Twenty One Pilots; and part 1 from this story. Next song is going to be part 2 of this story, “Nico and The Niners.”

Hi! I'm a university writing center director who teaches literature classes and loves helping others to understand the deeper meanings of their favorite songs. I'm married to my beautiful wife April and love Twenty One Pilots, Mumford & Sons, Kishi Bashi, and so many others!

Hi! I'm a university writing center director who teaches literature classes and loves helping others to understand the deeper meanings of their favorite songs. I'm married to my beautiful wife April and love Twenty One Pilots, Mumford & Sons, Kishi Bashi, and so many others!